The personal blog of Dave Fernig, thoughts on science and unrelated matters

Where are we?
The lab is situated in the Biosciences building (216 on the campus map), 1st floor, which is part of the Biochemistry Department of the Institute of Integrative Biology.
The Biochemistry Department at Liverpool was the first in the UK. On the occasion of its centenary in 2002, and as part of the “Signalling the Future” celebration meeting, George Pitt produced a brief history, published in Biochem Soc Trans. There is an earlier history, 2002-1971 by RA Morton here and a history of the development of the discipline in the UK is here.

Next lab meeting
Lab meetings have moved – we are back on Monday mornings.

Next lab meeting will be January 9 2017
Venue still to be decided by the Orbit system – we may have to ‘camp out’. Thao is in charge of the running order.

Remember, bring a paper too – for a brief discussion

Guide to a PhD
Choosing a PhD is very difficult. Prospective students cannot have a real feel for what a PhD entails: this you can only understand in retrospect. We all have 20:20 vision in hindsight, but this doesn’t help make a decision about the future.
How to go about a PhD is also rather difficult. Like many things, we learn a lot by trial and error. Some of the coursework and other resources provided to graduate students can be wide of the mark.
Seven years ago I found an excellent document on the www, which I used in a series of workshops with PhD students who joined my lab. The document has evolved in places and it seems appropriate to make it generally available. I would stress that this is NOT an official University of Liverpool document, but simply my adaptation of resources found on the www that I feel are of some use when choosing whether to do a PhD, which PhD and how to go about your PhD.

The “Guide” stops somewhere in the PhD. One of its omissions is the viva. Happily, an excellent post by Athene Donald comes to the rescue. This is recommended reading for all students writing their thesis and it is probably also a good nerve settler the day before the viva.